On Wednesday, Oct. 8, journalist Amy Goodman followed her Tuesday night lecture at Trinity University by broadcasting her live news show, “Democracy Now!,” from TigerTV’s studio on campus, with a crew of students making the broadcast possible.
“I don’t know if it will be the first global broadcast that has emanated from the university, but we will be broadcasting on over 1,300 public radio and television stations around the United States and the world,” Goodman said in her lecture Tuesday night.
TigerTV is used to broadcasting their own shows”””Newswave,” “Studio 21″ and “The Not So Late Show”””but the large audience reached by “Democracy Now!” was an entirely new experience.
“It’s pretty much what we do three times a week, just more official and exciting because thousands of people are watching it,” said Jamie Banks, a senior involved with TigerTV. “It’s just so cool to actually be able to affect this many people and inform them about so many important topics.”
Members of TigerTV, along with Denis Moynihan, co-founder of “Democracy Now!,” arrived on the set early Wednesday morning to prepare for the broadcast.
“When Trinity invited Amy to speak, I had to figure out the logistics because she is very committed to doing her daily newscast,” Moynihan said. “I help set up some of these unusual broadcasts that happen out of our routine.”
“Democracy Now!” has previously broadcasted from some of the other universities where Goodman has spoken, as well as from various locations around the world. For these unique occasions, the show is unable to use their usual New York-based crew.
“After we offered up the TigerTV studio, we had to come up with the crew,” said Leah Hoffpauir, station manager, before the broadcast. “All the TigerTV managers are taking a position and helping out, so we were actually able to get a crew together pretty easily.”
To prepare for Goodman’s arrival, the TigerTV managers spent the week practicing the different roles necessary for the Wednesday morning broadcast by taking on the new roles during the TigerTV show broadcasts.
“We had to get three camera positions, an audio and an audio assistant. I’ll be directing and doing TD””which switches between the cameras””and someone will be doing teleprompters,” Hoffpauir said. “We’ve all done these positions before, but we’ve been refreshing throughout the week.”
“Democracy Now!” airs every weekday morning at 7 a.m. The show normally begins with 10 minutes of headlines, followed by interviews.
On Wednesday, Goodman spoke with guests about the recently passed abortion laws in Texas, mistreatment in immigration detention facilities and the harmful effects of fracking.
“Broadcasting from the university integrates with our commitment to training people and getting people to learn these skills through this extra production, beyond their already impressive line-up of programs,” Moynihan said.
To watch the broadcast and explore the topics discussed, visit democracynow.org.
